“Wherever you go, there you are.” –Jon Kabat-Zinn
You’re running late for work and traffic is piled up. You open your feed and get flooded with bad news from across the world. You get a call that a loved one has been sent to the hospital. Some days seems like a never ending stream of back luck. No matter who you are, stress is an ever present difficultly in life. We cannot control if something stressful happens, only how we deal with it. Meditation and mindfulness are some tools than can help deal with the many sources of stress. The following books provide a solid introduction to both practices.
We also have several films on meditation and mindfulness available through Kanopy.
Meditation for Fidgety Skeptics by Dan Harris
From ABC News journalist and anchor of Nightline comes a different kind of book on meditation. After a panic attack live on Good Morning America in 2004, the author went from sworn skeptic of anything with a hint of mysticism to one of the most well known contemporary advocates of meditation. Along with his previous work 10% Happier and his podcast, Ten Percent Happier, Dan’s no nonsense approach to meditation argues anyone can benefits from the practice.
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Mindfulness for Dummies by Shamash Alidina
The Dummies series always puts out good work, and this is no exception. It provides a good general overview to mindfulness with a fair amount of depth on the topic. Also from the author is Mindfulness At Work for Dummies for when your work day feels like Office Space.
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Practical Meditation: A Simple Step-By-Step Guide by Giovanni Dienstmann
I usually don’t like anything put out by DK Media, but it is an excellent primer on beginning to meditate and its many variants. While it doesn’t have much depth, it provides a nice primer with some nice infographics.
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First, We Make the Beast Beautiful : A New Journey Through Anxiety by Sarah Wilson
While not centered on meditation, this memoir from Australian journalist and author of I Quit Sugar details her own personal struggle with anxiety. Besides dietary changes, meditation plays a key role in her journey to understand and manage herself as an anxious person. Tackling the topic is humor and compassion, Wilson’s is one of the best book on anxiety from one person’s perspective that I can recommend. Also available on audiobook and eAudiobook, read by the author herself.